Integrated systems are known in which a plurality of software programs interact via a network to provide a service (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). In an integrated system in which many software programs interact in complex ways, the configuration values of the software programs constituting the system have to be aligned with the characteristics of the system and optimized in order to improve the security, performance, and reliability of the system as a whole.
However, optimization of software configuration values requires system managers to perform manual operations relying on large amounts of information provided by software manufacturers and based on their own experience. These operations are time-consuming and labor-intensive. This trend is particularly noticeable in multi-vendor environments, because hardly any basic information is provided for getting software from different manufacturers to interact.